The creative arts can relate to many forms of the arts embodied in action and practice among them (but not restricted to) drama, dance and musical performance, visual arts, writing, publishing, graphic arts, cartooning, film, multi media and design.

In Humane

To be humane is to have or show compassion or benevolence.

Being concerned with the alleviation of suffering.

To interact with care, consideration and respect.

Medicine

the word medicine is from the Latin ars medicina, meaning the art of healing.

Friday, May 10, 2013

Creative Arts in Humane Medicine book introduction

We
would like to share with you a few brief excerpts from the introduction to the book
"Creative Arts in Humane Medicine".

Creative
Arts in Humane Medicine

Introduction

Cheryl
L. McLean, Editor

.Our
book title, Creative Arts in Humane Medicine, deserves a brief
explanation that will help orient readers to both the content and approach.
Creative arts here refers to art forms such as visual arts (for example,
fabric art, installations, collage, photography, painting, sketching ) drama and
performance (ethnodrama, reader’s theatre, music, dance, etc.); forms of writing
(narrative and poetry, monologues/playwriting); creative arts in therapy and for
practitioner self care; (music therapy, drama therapy and other arts
modalities) graphic and digital arts, (digital story, cartooning and film),
among others.To
be humane is to show empathy or understanding , to care about the
condition and suffering of others, to treat others as we ourselves might wish to
be treated. The word medicine, from the Latin ars medicina refers to
the art of healing and medicine, the practice that is invested in the prevention
and treatment of illness.

Creative Arts in Humane
Medicineopens with a promise of hope. The first article, Teaching
Empathy through Role-play and Fabric Art. features research about fabric art
and role play to teach empathy, an innovative pedagogical approach for end of
life health care providers.Educating for empathy, so as to bring active
and embodied learning to medical students, Andre Smith and the research team at
the Department of Sociology, University of Victoria, explore the experiences of
first- and second-year medical students who participated in a progressive
learning intervention that effectively cultivated empathy in the medical
students who took part in the study.

I
was recently a guest presenter for a webinar with medical students for The
American Medical Student Association, Medical Humanities Scholars’ Program and,
during the session, one student asked, “If this work (about the creative arts
in medicine ) is frequently about empathy and feeling the human story, how much
empathy for us is too much empathy? What if I can no longer bear
it?”

The
student asked a very difficult question, one not easy to answer. Our creative
work is powerful and profound in the way it frequently uses all of the senses to
communicate and draw us closer to human understanding, but how much can we be
expected to bear, what are our human limits? Perhaps, I thought, if I was,
for a moment, to imagine myself in bed, ill and fighting for life, how much
empathy would I hope my caregivers would extend to me? When would enough be
enough?

It
is true, there are times when empathic understandings may be very difficult. We
engage creatively and actively in expressive and soulful learning, a visceral
process, that undoubtedly affects us deeply but in turn offers a chance for
release and understanding that restores us to the recuperative grounding that
can bring true insight and wisdom. Henry David Thoreau expresses the gift of
empathy as miraculous.

“Could
a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for
an instant?”

A
leader in the field of Narrative Medicine, Dr. Rita Charon, has long advocated for the use of narrative in medical
education. In Chapter 3 of this book, Navigating With Narrative Through Life
Experience, both Jasna Schwind and John J. Guiney Yallop demonstrate how
they have have used narrative in different ways to increase understanding and
to teach about health, caring and life experience. Schwind, a nurse educator ,
writes about her work, informed by Narrative Inquiry, while sharing aspects of
her own illness story to demonstrate how intentional and thoughtful reflection
allowed her, as both patient and caregiver, to make sense of the experience. Narrative and poetic inquirer,
John J. Guiney Yallop, writes about his lived experiences with medical
practitioners throughout his life and, in so doing, poignantly illustrates the
vital importance of the relationship between practitioner and patient.

About this Book

is a resource for medical educators and medical students as well asthose engaged in Medical Humanities, Public Health, Health Promotion, Social Work and the Social Services and the allied health professions featuring research as well as illustrative examples of the creative arts in action for humane medicine...

…the book features contributions from physicians, medical educators and researchers, allied health professionals across Canada, the U.S., U.K. and Australia, as well as medical students, residents, artists and others advocating for change showing how the creative arts in many forms can contribute towardhumane medicine.”

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The Human Factor

"In the US, a recent study foundthat over half of all US medical schoolsinvolved the arts in learning activities(Rodenhauser, Strickland, & Gambala,2004). This survey found that the artsare used to foster student well-being,enhance teaching and learning, andimprove clinical and relational skills,for example, observation and diagnosticskills, reflection and insight."Excerpt from the article by Pamela Brett-MacLeanPh.D.Use of the Arts in Medical and Health Professional Education,